The Dowager's Trap
The sixth day after breaking through the enemy star system.
The combat information center had grown as busy as if the room itself were excited. The operators reported that a long-range quantum communication was requesting permission to connect — identifying themselves as an escort force urgently dispatched by Duke Shuprit Hamilton.
"Permission granted."
As commander she could not easily show her emotions, yet even Eirin's face lit with a faint flush of excitement at a transmission from Duke Hamilton — representative of the loyalist faction and the man who had built its greatest power.
Ziiing—
A moment later, the figure of a man took shape above the strangely abnormal space positioned in front of the captain's seat. More precisely, he was being generated as a hologram.
Hardan carried the look of a veteran who had crossed countless battlefields — thick features, a solid build, and a roughly trimmed beard. He dropped to one knee before Eirin and bowed his head. The empty space before the captain's seat, it turned out, housed a holographic projection unit.
"Given the circumstances, you are forgiven. Rise."
At Eirin's command, Hardan stood. He was the picture of a career soldier — respectful before the Dowager, yet uncowed.
Ordinarily she would have let such men pass without a second thought, but in their present situation he looked profoundly reliable.
"You are coming to escort us, then?"
"Yes. The rebels' information blackout left us ignorant of Your Grace's location, but the mercenary recruitment notice out of Keren allowed us to estimate your approximate position."
Hardan paused a moment, then continued.
"After deliberation, we concluded that Your Grace would take one of two routes."
"Then an escort force is moving along the safer route as well. What is the scale of your detachment?"
"Yes. Twelve battleships and thirty cruisers. At our present speed, we can rendezvous in four days."
"Joining us is important, but the rebels may still attempt something. Maintain full alert and prepare for ambush."
"Understood."
"Then I shall meet you in person four days from now."
"I look forward to that day as well."
"End the transmission."
"Yes."
Only after Eirin ordered the link cut did Hardan's image vanish.
"Hooaah~~"
"Haaaah……"
The operators let out long, heavy breaths. At last the thought that their ordeal was over brought a wave of relief. They would still have to fight in the war ahead, of course — but facing the enemy alone while being hunted was a world apart from fighting alongside allies.
"Do not let your guard down. Looked at the other way, these four days are the enemy's only remaining window of opportunity."
Honestly, it was hard to believe the enemy would come this far — but if they pushed themselves, it was not entirely impossible. On top of that, this side had broken through immediately after the last battle, with no time to plunder or recover supplies. If they fought in this state, ammunition would run dry mid-engagement just as it had before.
"Endure for four days only. I cannot die without repaying those of you who have devoted yourselves to the Imperial House."
She did not forget the carrot alongside the stick — raising tension with one hand while stirring motivation with the other. Every crew member of the Rastold Silverion had shown loyalty and devotion at the most dangerous moment. A fief might be impossible, but promotions in rank or monetary rewards would certainly be granted.
The operators did not answer with a vigorous shout, yet their eyes burned with the resolve that they only had to hold out for four days.
…Four days……
And yet Eirin felt a strange tightness settle over her heart.
Once we enter loyalist territory, I will never sit in this seat again.
Once they joined the loyalist escort fleet, she would no longer take the front line herself as she did now. Issuing orders to nobles from a place of safety and receiving reports of the war's progress would be the whole of it. From then on, the Rastold Silverion would be commanded by the deputy captain.
And if that happens……
In a situation where she ought to have felt relief, Eirin felt only a stifling frustration. She knew the reason perfectly well.
Jincheon……
A lowly Terran man with neither high rank nor known renown. And yet — a body thicker and harder than her husband's, and a cock…
Am I going mad? Why can I feel no joy at joining the loyalist escort fleet……!
No — rather, the thought that she might never again see that hard body that had so hungered for her filled her with something close to despair.
Throb!
"Hnnph……!"
"Your Grace?"
In that instant her womb clenched and ached, craving pleasure. Her hand flew to her belly of its own accord and her upper body folded forward. Naturally the deputy captain, startled by the Dowager's strange behavior, asked after her with concern.
"Ahem. Do not worry. A cough tried to come up suddenly and I suppressed it on reflex."
Having offered that flimsy excuse, Eirin added that there was nothing to worry about.
"Your Grace. Between how often you have been leaving for personal business lately and this incident just now — is something wrong with your health? Would it not be wise to at least submit to an examination?"
The deputy captain, worried that Eirin — who ought to be the center of the battleship at the least, and of the loyalists at the greatest — had been acting strangely of late, advised her to seek medical attention.
"There is no need……"
At first she meant to dismiss it outright, but the worried gazes of not only the deputy captain but every operator watching her forced her to yield. Everyone present was unsettled by the state of her health, and she could see that only an examination would put that anxiety to rest.
"…Very well. Since the matter has been raised, I shall go at once. You will take command."
"Yes."
At her answer, the deputy captain and the operators alike breathed sighs of relief.
"Guards, escort Her Grace—"
"No. I will go alone. Do not smother me even this far."
Eirin shook off her escort and headed for the infirmary alone.
"Haaaah……"
Once outside the combat information center, she drew a deep, shuddering breath.
I can think of nothing but the pleasure that man taught me……
That masculine body, and a cock larger and harder than her husband's. Jincheon, who had brought her to climax for the first time in her life and left her with a shock she would never forget, would not leave her mind.
She had set out for the infirmary to receive her examination — but the thought of Jincheon set her body burning, and thirst drove her toward the mess hall for water instead.
"Kyahahahat~"
"Fufufu."
Along the way, familiar voices and laughter drifted toward her.
Jincheon's companions.
The female mercenaries hired alongside him — the very talents her younger sister Beatrix so coveted.
Before long, at a T-junction in the corridor, she saw Heliane and Calsira emerge from beyond the wall, their shoulders drawn into Jincheon's arms on either side. The soft light in the eyes of the two women nestled against one man told Eirin exactly what those eyes meant.
They've been held by that man……!
She knew, because she herself had worn that same look after being held in Jincheon's arms.
"Ah — good day to you."
Coming face to face with Eirin as if by chance, Jincheon insolently offered only a slight nod of his head, still holding Heliane and Calsira. Had she brought guards, she would have punished him on the spot. Heliane and Calsira at least bowed deeply — yet neither made any move to leave his embrace.
Both of them younger than I am, and with better skin. They don't even wear cosmetics, and their skin looks like that?
Her own skin was fine thanks to biological modification, but cosmetics were still a basic necessity. As a noblewoman she was all the more sensitive to such things. A woman's weapon was her beauty, and in aristocratic society the side with more weapons held the advantage.
Yet from Heliane and Calsira came neither the distinctive scent of cosmetics nor any trace of having applied them. And since they generally shared a similar cast of features with her own circle, it was plain they were beauties of a considerable level.
Having greeted Eirin, Jincheon continued down the corridor without a backward glance. She glared after him —
"Heliane."
"Hm?"
"Opening."
"Kyauh?"
— and he pulled Heliane's slender waist close and kissed her deeply. What infuriated her still more was that he never so much as glanced her way; he simply turned his head the other direction and savored Calsira's lips as well.
In the end, until his figure vanished beyond the wall, Jincheon never once turned his head toward Eirin, wholly absorbed in enjoying Heliane's and Calsira's reactions.
"……"
At that sight, a rage she herself could not understand began to consume her.
He neither threatened her with the recording nor sent her any signal at all. It was as if he were saying, I had a little fun with a noblewoman of Dowager rank, but she wasn't much. Time to lose interest.
Shudder—!
"Kh… hhk……!"
Utterly ignored as a woman, Eirin clenched her fists, shed tears, and trembled with humiliation. Under ordinary circumstances, not being blackmailed should have brought relief — yet for reasons she could not grasp, she felt only degradation.
You bastard……! So you had your fun and now I'm disposable? You prefer girls younger and prettier than me……!
She could not forget the pleasure he had given her. She struggled through self-pleasure and still could not reach climax, suffering for it. And that side of things paid her no mind at all, busy enjoying the bodies of women younger and more beautiful than herself.
For a woman who had only learned what "a woman's happiness" truly was after being held in Jincheon's arms, his blatant disregard was maddening beyond reason.
Had Jincheon seen this, he would have been startled — Whoa, a stronger reaction than I expected?
If that's how you're going to play it, then I'll throw away pride and everything else!
Having resolved something deep within, Eirin first headed for the infirmary to establish a medical record.
The next day.
Eirin summoned Beatrix privately.
"Jincheon is suspicious?"
"Yes. So I intend to conduct another one-on-one interview."
"…Hmm… Unnie, honestly, I can say with complete confidence that I am the person on this battleship who hates that man Jincheon the most. That arrogant conduct, devoid of manners or respect, is utterly repulsive."
Beatrix laid out her reasons for despising him.
"But calling him suspicious seems a bit much."
Even she, however, did not think Jincheon was suspicious. They had come too far to start picking at such things now. In blunt terms, they were already in the same boat.
"I know. I have nothing resembling clear evidence I could put forward. It's just a feeling."
Having said as much, Eirin offered Beatrix a proposal she would find hard to refuse.
"Calsira and Heliane, was it? The names of the mercenaries you've been coveting?"
"That's right! With those two's skills, they could play a huge role in the war ahead — but Jincheon, that damn bastard, keeps refusing for whatever reason! Ugh! It's so irritating!"
Beatrix fumed over why they would not leave a piece of trash like Jincheon.
Of course they won't. He holds their bodies, after all.
She would not have understood before. She understood now. They, too, had fallen into the pleasure Jincheon gave them.
"Viscount."
"Hm?"
"I'll authorize a viscountcy, or compensation of equivalent value. I can manage that much without difficulty. Use it to persuade those two one more time."
"Really?"
"Or if I find something suspicious about Jincheon, you may use that to make a recruitment offer as well."
Ordinarily Beatrix would have considered a private interview between Eirin and Jincheon dangerous even for a biologically enhanced Dowager, and would have insisted on escorting her personally. But Eirin assured her she would use a suppression weapon and the assassin-defense turrets installed in her private quarters, easing those worries — and above all, Beatrix's hunger for talent, her desire to recruit Heliane and Calsira, aligned perfectly.
"All right, Unnie. I don't know if the recruitment will work, but I'll keep those two occupied as best I can."
"Then I'm counting on you."
Having set her sister to the task of separating Heliane and Calsira, Eirin sent a subordinate to deliver the order that Jincheon present himself. Against the possibility of a counterattack, she also commanded that the subordinate thoroughly search Jincheon's person.
That's right. He's nothing but a mercenary of unknown origin. Frame a lowborn like that and no one will step forward to defend him.
Yes. Eirin had decided to pin a false charge on Jincheon and make him a criminal. She would frame him, reduce him to a slave, and implant a chip loaded with acid toxin that would dissolve his entire body through his bloodstream if he disobeyed. Then she would torment the man who had treated her so lightly, and satisfy the pleasure she craved.
It was a vile scheme she would never have entertained before — but for the Eirin who had learned a woman's happiness, her usual sense of fairness had long since vanished.
"Jincheon, reporting. I was told you summoned me."
Not long after, Jincheon's voice came through as he knocked on the door of the captain's private quarters.
"Enter."
Swallowing dryly, Eirin granted him entry and concealed the suppression weapon.
Ziiing—
"Hm?"
As the door opened and Jincheon stepped inside, the first thing he noticed was that something was wrong with his Bio Device. Apparently some measure was in effect to prevent its use.
BIO DEVICE SIGNAL: INTERRUPTED
EXTERNAL JAMMING FIELD DETECTED — LOCAL NETWORK ACCESS DENIED
Clank! Click-click— Clack!
At the same time the door slammed shut and locked, and at Eirin's signal the turrets installed in the private quarters sprang out and trained on Jincheon.
"…What is this supposed to be?"
Finally, as Eirin leveled a pistol loaded with suppression voltage rounds, Jincheon asked in a stiffened voice — as if this were something he had not expected.
"It's all your fault."
"Hm?"
"Did you truly believe you could defile the Dowager and walk away unscathed?"
"Ha. Well damn. Good thing I didn't disarm the dead man's switch just in case."
"Dead man's switch? Irrelevant. I will not kill you. I will simply make you a slave and force you to atone for your sins for the rest of your life!"
Honestly startled by the sudden counterattack, Jincheon was able to grasp her intent to some degree from the phrase make you a slave.